Read the passage below and answer the question. Whether change takes place rapidly or slowly, the laws and principles that nature follows in today’s world, such as gravity, also applied in the geologic past. For example, the meteorite that likely killed the dinosaurs affected the ocean, the atmosphere, and life according to the same laws and behaviors of physics, chemistry, and biology we can observe in nature and verify by experimentation today.

Which of the principles below does this passage best describe?

a. catastrophism
b. gradualism
c. uniformitarianism
d. speciation

Aperson gives a shopping cart an initial push along a horizontal floor to get it moving, and then lets go. the cart travels forward along the floor, gradually slowing as it moves. consider the horizontal force(s) on the cart while it is moving forward and slowing. which of the following statements is correct? (a) both a forward and a backward force are acting on the cart, but the forward force is larger. (b) only a forward force is acting which diminishes with time. (c) both a forward and a backward force are acting on the cart, but the backward force is larger. (d) only a backward force is acting, no forward force.